Puzzle Power!
- 7 days ago
- 5 min read
Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!
Today we’re going to take you on a journey through one of our favorite elements of the chess life: PUZZLES!
Puzzles are also one of the oldest elements of chess! They have appeared in ancient Indian and Arabic works for millennia, like in the famous Book of Chess, or Kitab ash-shatranj by philosopher Al-Adli al-Rumi in 840, popularizing the Knight's Tour (read about knight tours and other math on the chess board in our early blog here!). Though his original book didn’t survive to present times, his chess problems were copied and discussed in later texts, like in one of the earliest chess books we still have:
Libro de Los Juegos, or The Book of Games.
Commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile, or Alfonso the Wise as everyone called him, the book was published waaaay back in 1283:
The first section of the book discusses chess, summarizing Arabic knowledge of the game. It also contains 103 chess puzzles, presented as beautiful illustrations, like this one:
Why don’t people publish chess puzzles like this anymore!?
Not only did this book preserve the chess knowledge from ancient times, it also showed the role of chess back in those days. A recent scientific study of the book argued that these puzzle illustrations redefined the racial stereotypes we thought people had in the Middle Ages. Or maybe it was chess that smashed those stereotypes. You can read about this prized study here:
Back to the103 chess puzzles from the book: they were actually puzzles for the game of shatranj, an early version of chess in Persia, but some of them are still applicable to modern chess, like this Chess Problem 39, where Black moves and mates in 2.
You see how the guy on the right is smiling, ready to pick up his black rook (any rook will do) to capture the pawn next to the White king in the middle? The White king cannot move, so the only way to get out of the check is to capture the Black rook with the rook. Then, the Black knight delivers checkmate!
This puzzle is an example of a mating puzzle, where your goal is to find checkmate. Mating puzzles are typically where chess puzzle solvers start. As they improve, puzzle solvers may tackle trickier positions where the goal is to win a piece, or gain a small advantage, but one step at a time.
Below, we present and walk you through mating puzzles from our own games (yep, from the XXI century!). We encourage you to try solving each puzzle BEFORE reading further to reveal the answers.
We’re big proponents of doing everything mentally as it builds your brain in amazing ways. But if you’re struggling to visualize mating combinations, set up the position on your chess board and move the pieces, like Peshka is doing here:
PUZZLE #1
This one comes from The Legend Vivaan’s opening trap and highlights the weakness of an exposed King in the center and the power of pins! White to move and, believe it or not, mate in 1!
The answer? 1. Nd6#
Why can’t the e pawn take it? It’s pinned by the Queen on e2! Wow!
PUZZLE #2
Here’s another opening gem from The Legend Vivaan. It’s Black to move and mate in 3!
There are actually two different ways to do it, so see if you can find both! This is a lovely example of why you should be very careful exposing your King in the middle of the board.
The answers? 1…Qh4+ 2. g3 Bxg3 3. hxg3 Qxg3#
Or
1… Qh4+2. g3 Qxg3 3.hxg3 Bxg3#
PUZZLE #3
This one comes from a Rookly game The Myth Sarang played. Can you find the mate in 2 for White? This puzzle nicely illustrates the power of the bishop pair!
The answer? 1. Bxf6+ Kh7 2. Qxh5#
PUZZLE #4
Another one from The Myth Sarang. Mate in 3 for White.
This one is quite tricky but highlights the power of well-placed pieces and pins. It’s also important to calculate deeply, particularly when sacrificing pieces!
The answer? 1. Rxe5+! fxe5 2. Qxe5 Be6 3. Qxe6#
PUZZLE #5
Here is a puzzle from a game the Man Benji played on chess dot com with the Black pieces!
In this game, things were equal, until White moved the knight to g3. Their plan was probably to reroute the knight to the f5 square and threaten all sorts of scary mates. Except, this move opened up a juicy diagonal, giving Black a chance to mate in 2. Can you find it?
Yes, you got it right! It’s the power of pins again!
The answer:
1… Qxh3+!
The pawn on g2 can’t take the queen because it’s pinned to the King by the Bishop on b7. The only move for White is 2. Kg1, which is met by 2… Qxg2#.
PUZZLE #6
Benji’s second game, also played as Black, followed a wild opening, arriving to a sharp position below.
Half of White’s pieces are undeveloped, but the other half are attacking relentlessly! Benji’s f7 pawn feels all sorts of pressure: three pieces are hitting that poor guy! Now, that Whites played fxe5, the rook is added to that attack! But White’s pawn recapture was a mistake! How can we punish White’s lack of development?
Hint: it’s about juicy diagonals again!
The answer:
1… d3+!
This sneaky pawn push opens the path for the hungry bishop on c5, while cutting off the defense of White’s bishop on c4!
2. Be3 prolonging the inevitable. 2 … Bxe3+ 3. Kh1 Qxf1#!
PUZZLE #7
Now that you’ve seen a few mating puzzles from our games, here is a nice one from our Rookly teammate and good buddy Odbayar.
This one is CRAZY!
The answer? 1… Rh4+!! sacrificing THE ROOOOOOOOK! 2. Kxh4 Qh5#
PUZZLE #8
Before we let you go, we want to show you a slightly harder type of puzzle where you really have to come up with a plan and calculate tempi (the plural of tempo), and how fast each side can promote!
In this position, IF it is White to move, who is winning and why? Pause before you read on to think about it and mentally calculate.
Did you say White is winning? You’re right! White can promote faster by playing h7!
OK, maybe that wasn’t too hard but what if we flip the script and say it’s Black to move!
We’ve flipped the board so you can see it from Black’s perspective! Black to move!
Who’s winning? Take your time and don’t scroll down yet!
The answer? Believe it or not, Black is winning now! How though? White promotes first, right? True… BUT what’s special about Black promoting the turn after is if White never moves their King?
It’s Check and Black can win the White Queen!
It’s really amazing how double-edged chess can be, and how one tempo can make all the difference, so make every move count.
If you solved these puzzles correctly, congratulations! We hope reading this has inspired you to try doing more puzzles. There are lots of great websites to do them like Chess.com, ChessKid.com, Lichess.org, ChessTempo.com, and many more. Happy puzzling!
Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Puzzler Friends!
The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivaan
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